Virus Software for Tiger

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udlose2

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Since Virex is no longer an option what software, if any, is available for Tiger(I heard Norton is NONO)? I am still fairly new to Apple and the number of viruses and hackers in the Window world can make you quite gun shy. I know I have read alot of people saying " Oh, no worries there are so few viruses for Mac the chance is practically nil that you could get one". Far as I am concerned those are famous last words, I think it is wrong for everyone to have the "It'll never happen to me" attitude. I know I dont know a lot about Macs and I believe there are very few malicious scripts, etc.. out there for Macs but that is what makes me think it is only a matter of time. At some point the tide will turn and those nasty little virus geeks will notice that "hey! there is whole community of Mac users with there pants down just waiting to be taken advantage of!", I would prefer to not be one of them! Is there anything in the works for Mac users? Or does anyone have any suggestions on how to protect yourself as much as possible ??
Thanks!
 
This question has been answered about a billion times in about a billion forums there about Mac OS X.

There are no viruses for Mac OS X and chances are extremely low that a virus for this system will ever come out as it is Unix based.

No need for Virex at all.
 
I know I have seen several postings about it before, but the problem is it always says "the chance is extremely low", not impossible or improbable. Thats why in my initial posting I mentioned I know everyone says the chances are extremely low and NO ONE is at all worried and that is exactly why I believe at some point Mac users will be a prime target. Sorry if I wasted your time but as I stated I am new to the Apple world and did not find what I would consider a satisfactory answer to virus question before. To me simply saying "it probably wont happen" is not quite a good enough answer, sorry but that is why I asked the question.
 
Unix has been written by hackers.
The Internet has been written by hackers.

Why would hackers hack a hacker-OS?

The security model of Unix is extremely tight. In Mac OS X (-> Unix based, Darwin kernel), administrative actions cannot go unnoticed.

From the technical point of view it is pretty impossible to write malicious software for Unix systems.
 
HomunQlus said:
Unix has been written by hackers.
The Internet has been written by hackers.

Why would hackers hack a hacker-OS?
Click to expand...

For a second there, I thought about sending you some cough medicine. ::ha:: :D
 
What I said is a well-known fact, which you can check for yourself.

Unix is an operating system written by hackers.
The Internet (-> local network at first) has been written by hackers while working on Unix.

Hackers don't do damage. It's one of the hacker rules and ethics.
 
udlose2:

Check out ClamXAV -it's free on versiontracker and MacUpdate. If you wish to purchase, I'd check out Intego's VirusBarrier.

HomunQlus:

I'm not quite sure I agree about 'hacker ethics' -I think ultimately it's data that's at risk, and anyone, anywhere, on any OS is potentially a target. Unix isn't bulletproof...
 
And if you read up on hackers, you'll find many incidents where black hat hackers used security issues on UN*X systems. There are good books about it out there. But that's not the subject. The subject is antiviral software for the Mac. ClamXav is certainly one way to go. But really: You can still sleep sound without installing any antivirus app for a while. When one is out in the wild, randomly infecting Macs, I'd suggest to install something. But as of now... You're good.
 
And btw.: If you _know_ there are older threads about the same subject, it'd be nice to search for them and add to _those_ threads instead of creating new ones that end up like the old ones...
 
I agree about using like-threads, Fryke. I wonder if more would hunt down older threads if there were a search (assuming I didn't miss it...)? I know I myself would benefit from said feature.

-Cheers
 
scratch that last post -I just just found the search (new to forum, what can i say??).

I'll go benefit from it now...
 
It's far more likely that some "script kiddie" using an automated hacking tool will crack into your mac using some unpatched vulnerability in the OS or due to the your being lax in securing your system. Turn on the firewall, learn how to use it, and be sure to download any and all security updates from Software Update-those two steps alone will go a long way towards securing your system from hostile attack.
 
HomunQlus said:
Hackers don't do damage. It's one of the hacker rules and ethics.
Click to expand...

You assume that all "hackers" abide by the same set of rules...or any rules at all. I think what you are doing is attempting to define hackers by using it in a sentence. The fact is, the term you are defining is known by another definition by most of the public at large. I think we are talking about people who would write malicious code. Call them what you want if you don't want to use the generic term "hacker", but the argument remains the same. There is absolutely no guarantee that a security exploit could not be found, or created, and used at some point in the future. In addition, for those using Microsoft applications on a Mac, such as Word and Excel, macro virii can be passed from a Mac user on to a Windows user. I've heard many argue that this doesn't matter. These people clearly don't run their own businesses. Send a client a common macro virus ten times and see how they feel about you. Then perhaps you could tell the client that they need to make the switch and, until they do, it's their fault that you are sending them virii.
 
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